The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie Share this: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 Antoine Henri Becquerel Marie Curie, née Sklodowska Prize share: 1/4 The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 was divided, one half awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity", the other half jointly to Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née Sklodowska "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel". Photos: Copyright © The Nobel Foundation Share this: To cite this page MLA style: "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 20 Jan 2017. < Who were the first women to win Nobel Prizes? - Ask History Ask History October 7, 2014 By Nate Barksdale Share this: Who were the first women to win Nobel Prizes?

Author Who were the first women to win Nobel Prizes? URL Google When it comes to record-setting Nobel Prize recipients, there’s Marie Curie and there’s everyone else. The Polish-French scientist was the first woman to share a Nobel Prize (the 1903 physics award, with her husband Pierre and fellow French scientist Henri Becquerel, for their pioneering work on radioactivity) and was also the first woman to receive an unshared Nobel, the 1911 chemistry prize, for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. That makes her the only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. As if that weren’t enough, four of her family members are also Nobel laureates. In addition to Pierre, her daughter and son-in-law shared the 1935 chemistry prize, while another son-in-law was the director of UNICEF when it won the 1965 peace prize. The first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize was Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner, née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau, who won in 1905.

Von Sutter was the author of an influential anti-war novel and had a leading role in convincing dynamite magnate Alfred Nobel to include a peace prize in his bequest. The first female Nobel literature laureate was novelist Selma Lagerlöf, whose most popular book was about a boy who flies around Sweden on the back of a goose. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine was Gerty Theresa Cori, who shared the 1947 award for discovering how sugar-derived glycogen is used by the body as an energy source. The last first woman to win the Nobel in her category was Elinor Ostrom, who shared the 2009 economics prize for her groundbreaking analysis of common property. The wait was so long for a woman economics laureate in part because that prize wasn’t established until 1969. In all, as of 2013, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 44 different women. Tags The Life and Legacy of Marie Curie | Fiat Physica Blog The Life and Legacy of Marie Curie "We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

— Marie Curie" Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in physics. Then, in 1911, she did it again when she won her second Nobel Prize, in chemistry. Born Maria Sklodowska on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie is one of the greatest female scientists this world has ever seen. Marie’s parents were both teachers, but she took after her father, a math and physics and instructor. He nurtured the importance of education and the sciences from an early age, and that passion continued into her adult years. After finishing secondary school, Marie’s options were limited due to the fact that she could not attend the male-only University of Warsaw. This led her to attend informal, secret classes in order to continue learning despite those barriers. Finally, in 1891 Marie was able to travel to France and enroll at the Sorbonne. It was there, in 1893, that she earned master’s degrees in physics and mathematics. After graduating, she searched for a lab to conduct studies on the magnetic properties of steel.

It was during this search that she was introduced to French physicist Pierre Curie, who would become her partner in life and in research. To date, Curie is the only woman to win two Nobel Prizes, but her second win set her apart as the only scientist, male or female, to win two Nobel Prize awards. An amazing achievement for any scientist – but a particularly impressive one among women in STEM fields. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. These areas are grouped together due to their overlapping skill sets and intertwined knowledge base. While Curie paved the way for women in STEM fields, they are still largely underrepresented. Men hold the majority of STEM jobs due to a lack of exposure and opportunities in the education of young women. Those two shortcomings are made clear in the fact that women are vastly outnumbered when it comes to winning prestigious scientific awards. Of the 357 people who have ever won a STEM-related Nobel Prize, only 16 of those recipients have been female. This lack of a strong female representation in STEM means that there are very few female scientists for today’s young girls to look up to.

Again, this can be attributed to a severe lack of STEM education opportunities for women, keeping them from seeing the great potential and opportunities in these fields. Also, a lack of female STEM role models makes it unclear to girls as to how they might juggle the demands of a rigorous career in STEM fields with having a family. It’s crucial to support women in STEM so they can continue pursuing their passions without giving up their lives – and set an example for girls with an interest in these fields. One example of a program aiming to help women with this is the M. Hildred Blewett Scholarship. This scholarship, awarded only to women in the field of physics, gives funding to those who have put their career on hold to start a family. The scholarship provides monetary resources for those women to then resume their research. Through funding opportunities like these, we not only improve the world in which we live, but we provide scientists with futures and ample opportunities. With programs such as this one and the Outstanding Young Physicist Award offered by the Lagrange Institute in partnership with the Pierre and Marie Curie Institute, we are building a world where young girls will have an abundance of strong female scientists like Marie Curie to look up to.

Marie Curie showed the world that women can make a huge difference when given the opportunity to excel within their passions. By funding women in science, we open the floor to the next generation of female science icons. Further reading: Nobel Prize: ten most important winners - Telegraph Sweden Nobel Prize: ten most important winners As the 2009 Nobel Prize winners are announced, we look at ten of the most influential laureates in the history of the awards. Professor Marie Curie working in her laboratory at the University of Paris in 1925 Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES By Nick Collins 4:24PM BST 08 Oct 2009 1. Marie Curie The leading light in a family that between them amassed a remarkable five Nobel Prizes in the fields of Chemistry and Physics. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 when she was recognised, along with her husband Pierre and Antoine Henri Becquerel, with the Physics award for their research into radiation. She later became the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes when she was given the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for her discovery of radium and polonium, and her further research into radium.

She is among a select group of people to have won prizes in two different fields. 2. Martin Luther King Jr. The American civil rights activist was the youngest person to be recognised by the Nobel foundation when he won the Peace Prize in 1964, at the age of 35, for his work to end racial discrimination through non-violent means. Related Articles Nobel Prize for Chemistry: Cambridge laboratory celebrates fourteenth win 08 Oct 2009 Even after his death in 1968 King's legacy lived on, and his image is still used today as a symbol by human rights groups around the world. 3. Albert Einstein Arguably the world's most famous scientist, Einstein was given the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his services to physics, especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect. During his career he made significant contributions to the world of theoretical physics, among them his famous theories of relativity. 4. Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins These three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their discovery of the "double helix" structure of DNA nine years earlier.

The award was deemed controversial because of the death of Rosalind Franklin, a collaborator with Wilkins, four years earlier. Nobel foundation rules, which state the prizes cannot be given posthumously, meant her work was not recognised. 5. Jean-Paul Sartre The French existentialist philosopher, writer and literary critic was the first person to turn down a Nobel Prize in 1964 when he declined the Prize for Literature. Sartre is still recorded as the winner by the Nobel federation for his influential work which was "filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth". 6. Sir Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain and Sir Howard Florey for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect on infectious diseases. The Scot made his discovery accidentally when he returned to his untidy laboratory from a holiday to discover a fungus had developed that destroyed the bacteria immediately surrounding it. 7. Hermann Muller The American won the same prize as Fleming a year later, in 1946, for his discovery of the mutating effects of X-ray radiation.

His research and continued argument against nuclear war made him a figure of great political significance in later years as nuclear weapons became an increasingly controversial subject. 8. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Russian novelist and dissident, who spent time in a Soviet labour camp after writing letters that criticised the communist regime, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970. His most famous novels, The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, for which he received the award, exposed the brutality of the Soviet Union's forced labour camps. 9. The International Committee of the Red Cross The highest number of Nobel Prize wins goes to the International Committee of the Red Cross with three separate Nobel Peace Prizes. In 1917 and 1944 the organisation was recognised for its work during the First and Second World Wars, and it was named as a winner again in 1963, along with the League of Red Cross Societies, to mark its 100th anniversary. 10. Sir Clive Granger The Welsh economist won the 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his methods of analysing economic statistics, which revolutionised the way economists interpret financial data.

His prize was shared with Robert Engle III, for his research in a similar area. Female Nobel Prize Laureates Female Nobel Prize Laureates The Nobel Prize Internet Archive In 1903, only two years after the Nobel Foundation was established, a Nobel Prize was awarded to a woman, Marie Curie , for the first time. Women have been winning Nobel Prizes ever since, but in very small numbers compared to their male colleagues. It took 40 years from its inception for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences to be awarded to a woman, Elinor Ostrom . This is despite the fact that one woman, Bertha von Suttner was influential in convincing Alfred Nobel to establish a Prize for Peace. Feel free to let your opinions be heard on how we can increase the role of women in the Arts & Sciences on our feeback page !. Best feedback will be posted.

Marie Curie - Biographical Marie Curie The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie Share this: Marie Curie - Biographical Marie Curie, née Maria Sklodowska, was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, the daughter of a secondary-school teacher. She received a general education in local schools and some scientific training from her father. She became involved in a students' revolutionary organization and found it prudent to leave Warsaw, then in the part of Poland dominated by Russia, for Cracow, which at that time was under Austrian rule. In 1891, she went to Paris to continue her studies at the Sorbonne where she obtained Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. She met Pierre Curie, Professor in the School of Physics in 1894 and in the following year they were married.

She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following the tragic death of Pierre Curie in 1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position. She was also appointed Director of the Curie Laboratory in the Radium Institute of the University of Paris, founded in 1914. See Also Article about the Curies Her early researches, together with her husband, were often performed under difficult conditions, laboratory arrangements were poor and both had to undertake much teaching to earn a livelihood. The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 inspired the Curies in their brilliant researches and analyses which led to the isolation of polonium, named after the country of Marie's birth, and radium. Mme. Curie developed methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful study of its properties, therapeutic properties in particular. Mme.

Curie throughout her life actively promoted the use of radium to alleviate suffering and during World War I, assisted by her daughter, Irene, she personally devoted herself to this remedial work. She retained her enthusiasm for science throughout her life and did much to establish a radioactivity laboratory in her native city - in 1929 President Hoover of the United States presented her with a gift of $ 50,000, donated by American friends of science, to purchase radium for use in the laboratory in Warsaw. Mme. Curie, quiet, dignified and unassuming, was held in high esteem and admiration by scientists throughout the world. She was a member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her death and since 1922 she had been a member of the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations. Her work is recorded in numerous papers in scientific journals and she is the author of Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives (1904), L'Isotopie et les Éléments Isotopes and the classic Traité' de Radioactivité (1910). The importance of Mme.

Curie's work is reflected in the numerous awards bestowed on her. She received many honorary science, medicine and law degrees and honorary memberships of learned societies throughout the world. Together with her husband, she was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for their study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the Prize. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry , in recognition of her work in radioactivity. She also received, jointly with her husband, the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1903 and, in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of her service to science. For further details, cf. Biography of Pierre Curie . Mme. Curie died in Savoy, France, after a short illness, on July 4, 1934.

From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. Marie Curie, Research Scientist, First Woman to Win a Nobel Prize Marie Curie, Research Scientist, First Woman to Win a Nobel Prize November 9, 2011 Marie Curie – Mini Biography Marie Curie, Research Scientist, First Woman to Win a Nobel Prize “…Scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it.

It must be done for itself, for the beauty of science, and then there is always the chance that a scientific discovery may become like the radium a benefit for humanity.” Marie Curie , excerpt from her speech, “The Scientific History of Radium is Beautiful,” Vassar College, New York, May 14, 1921 Born in Poland nearly 150 years ago, in her lifetime, Marie Curie won two Nobel Prizes for her research in radiation and for discovering radium, which proved useful in hospitals. The first Nobel Prize she shared with her husband Pierre Curie and French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel . When Marie Curie died in 1934, Albert Einstein said, “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one who fame has not corrupted.” Name: Marie Curie Birth Date: November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934 Job Functions: Research Scientist Known For: Discovering the element Radium, and winning the Nobel Prize twice, 1903 and 1911.

Biographical Information Image via Wikipedia Though Marie Curie was born in Poland (Marya Sklodowska), most of her scientific work took place in France where she lived from 1891. When Curie graduated from high school, at that time in Russian-dominated Poland, girls were not allowed to attend university. She worked as a tutor and later as a governess, a post she held for six years, to save money to attend university. Curie was also involved in an underground movement, the “Floating University,” where a group of young men and women gathered to satisfy their deep appetite for knowledge. While working to save money, Curie made time to study physics and mathematics on her own. One of Curie’s sisters was already living in Paris and extended an invitation to her. Both sisters had made a deal that while Bronya was studying medicine, Marie would support her using earnings from her job as a governess. And when Bronya became a doctor, she would return the favour to Marie.

Curie started at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1891 at the age of 24, and graduated top of her class with a Masters in Physics in 1893, and mathematics in 1894 – this was a phenomenal accomplishment since she had to master French. In 1894, Curie needed a laboratory to conduct her research projects and was referred to Pierre Curie at the School of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Paris. Pierre and Marie had a strong connection and were married the following year. After their first daughter was born in 1897, Curie turned her attention to the work of Antoine Henri Becquerel who had discovered radiation from uranium. Curie surmised that radiation was an atomic property, and if that was indeed the case, then it had to be present in other elements as well. Her investigation allowed her to confirm what she believed – she discovered radiation from thorium and Curie coined the word radiation. Along with her husband they searched for other sources of radioactivity. They decided to work with the mineral pitchblende, known for its uranium content.

In 1898 they soon discovered that the radioactivity of pitchblende was much higher than the combined radioactivity of uranium and thorium. They presented their findings in two papers to the Academy of Sciences, first announcing the discovery of the radioactive element polonium, named after Poland where Marie Curie was born, and the second paper announced the discovery of radium. The Atomic Age was born. This was only the beginning. For the Curies to study the properties of the new elements, they needed a substantial amount of pitchblende. Fortunately for them, the government of Austria donated a ton of pitchblende for their research. Between 1898 and 1902, the Curies spent a substantial amount of time processing tons of pitchblende. They were able to extract one gram of radium from eight tons of pitchblende. During that period, they published both jointly and separately 32 scientific papers. In one of those papers, they announced that diseased, tumour-forming cells were destroyed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radium.

In June 1903, Curie passed her doctoral examination when she submitted “Researches on Radioactive Substances.” In November 1903, the Royal Society in London awarded the Curies, the Humphry Davy Medal. In December of that year, the Curies, along with A. H. Becquerel were the joint recipients for the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1903. Marie Curie was the first female recipient of a Nobel Prize. In October 1904, Pierre was appointed professor of Physics at Sarbonne and shortly after, Marie was appointed superintendent of his laboratory. Pierre died suddenly in 1906 when he was run down by a heavy carriage. Curie was asked to take over his position and was the first female professor at the Sorbonne. In 1908 Curie started to teach the only course offered in the world on radioactivity. For years, Curie continued her research work with radium to isolate pure, un-combined element of metallic radium, and in 1910, with the help of André Debierne she finally succeeded.

The following year, in 1911, Curie received a second Nobel Prize, the first recipient of two, and the first person to receive a Nobel Prize in two different sciences (Physics and Chemistry). In 1914, Curie became the head of the radioactivity lab of the newly formed Radium Institute in Paris. During the four years of the First World War, Curie equipped 20 automobiles in her laboratory with X-ray apparatus to aid the sick. She often visited the battlefront to oversee the medical use of radiology. Curie received a visit from Mrs. William B. Meloney, the editor of a woman’s magazine in New York. Meloney represented many women who were inspired by Curie’s accomplishments and generosity. She later returned to Paris to notify Curie that $100,000 had been raised through national subscriptions to purchase a gram of radium for the Radium Institute. Curie was invited to travel with her daughters to the US to collect the gram of radium. In May 1921, Curie travelled with her daughters to receive the radium to continue her research. She met with President Harding and received a gold key to the case holding the radium.

While in the US she attended a gathering of the American Association of University Women at Carnegie Hall in New York and received many honorary degrees from numerous American institutions. On her visit, Curie gave a rare speech “ The Scientific History of Radium is Beautiful ” at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1921, Curie’s book, La Radiologie et a la guerre was published, which documented the human experience of radiology during the war. In 1923, she wrote Pierre’s biography. Curie returned to the US in 1929 to receive more funding, and was a guest of the White House at the invitation of President Henry Hoover and the First Lady. When Curie’s health deteriorated, she never complained because that’s the type of woman she was. Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934. Why Marie Curie’s Contribution Matters Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize, the first recipient of two, and the first and only person so far who has received a Nobel Prize in two sciences. Curie invented X-ray vans to send out to wounded soldiers.

She worked incredibly hard and paved the way for women in science. Women couldn’t attend university in Russian-dominated Poland, but Currie found a way to circumvent that by going to France and studying in French which was no small feat for her. That takes grit and determination. Why Marie Curie Makes an Excellent Invisible Mentor An invisible mentor is a unique leader you can learn things from by studying them from a distance. Curie had many accomplishments in her 67 years and there are many things that we can learn from her. And most importantly, Marie Curie understood that life was not just about her, she had a good grasp of the concept of social responsibility. When Curie worked as a governess, she worked full-time, found time to study, as well as teach the neighbourhood children. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. Marie Curie was an inspiration to others. Further Reading CURIE, MARIE NOBEL PRIZE SCIENTIST Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!

Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that’s why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people. Book links are affiliate links. Works Cited/Referenced UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography Science and Its Times Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography Chemistry – Foundations and Applications Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age and War Reconstruction Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy YouTube video credit: Women Nobel Prize Winners, CultureRemembers Book link is affiliate link. Related articles History of Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) 1903 Marie Curie becomes first woman to receive a doctorate in France; greatest contribution to science than any previous thesis, committee says In 1903, scientist Marie Curie (1867-1934) defended her doctoral thesis at the Universitï¿½ de la Sorbonne, becoming the first woman to receive a doctoral degree in the history of France.

The examining committee noted that her thesis made a greater contribution to science than any other thesis project before. The same year she and her husband Pierre Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of radium and polonium. She coined the term radioactivity, and polonium was a name they invented to honour Poland, Marie's birthplace. Marie Curie was born in Warsaw under the name of Maria Sklodowska in 1867. Both her parents were teachers. Her mother was a piano teacher, and her father was a teacher of mathematics and physics. Marie herself became a teacher during her teenage years. In 1906, when her husband Pierre died in a tragic accident, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences at Sorbonne, becoming the first a woman to be appointed to this position in the history of that university. In 1911 she was awarded another Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity, becoming the first person to win a the Nobel Prize twice. In 1914 she co-founded the Radium Institute in Paris and became its first Director.

During the first World War, Curie and her daughter Irene trained nurses to use X-rays to locate bullets in injured soldiers. She devoted her life to scientific research and teaching. Her work made a great contribution to basic science by helping to better understand energy and matter. It also opened a new era in medical research and treatment of diseases. Marie Curie died in Paris in 1934 at the age of 67 of leukemia, probably caused by her many years of exposure to high levels of radiation. She was survived by two daughters, Irene (born in 1897) and Eve (born in 1904). In 1935, a year after her mother's death, Irene won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry, making them the first mother and daughter to share this honor. Marie Curie was always concerned about the use of science to alleviate suffering and promote well-being. In her own words, "You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals.

To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." For more information on Marie Curie, see: Science in Poland - Maria Sklodowska-Curie Maria Sklodowska-Curie Deutsch Version Maria (Marie Fr.) Sklodowska-Curie (born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867) was one of the first woman scientists to win worldwide fame, and indeed, one of the great scientists of this century. She had degrees in mathematics and physics. Winner of two Nobel Prizes, for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911, she performed pioneering studies with radium and polonium and contributed profoundly to the understanding of radioactivity. Perhaps the most famous of all women scientists, Maria Sklodowska-Curie is notable for her many firsts: She was the first to use the term radioactivity for this phenomenon. She was the first woman in Europe to receive her doctorate of science.

In 1903, she became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for Physics. The award, jointly awarded to Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henri Becquerel, was for the discovery of radioactivity. She was also the first female lecturer, professor and head of Laboratory at the Sorbonne University in Paris (1906). In 1911, she won an unprecedented second Nobel Prize (this time in chemistry) for her discovery and isolation of pure radium and radium components. She was the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes. She was the first mother-Nobel Prize Laureate of daughter-Nobel Prize Laureate. Her oldest daughter Irene Joliot-Curie also won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1935). She is the first woman which has been laid to rest under the famous dome of the Pantheon in Paris for her own merits. She received 15 gold medals, 19 degrees, and other honors. A truly remarkable figure in the history of science ! Maria Sklodowska-Curie became the first Pole to receive a Nobel Prize.

Maria Sklodowska was born as the fifth and youngest child of Bronislawa Boguska, a pianist, singer, and teacher, and Wladyslaw Sklodowski, a professor of mathematics and physics. When she was little and living in Poland, her nickname was Manya. From childhood she was remarkable for her prodigious memory, and at the age of 16 she won a gold medal on completion of her secondary education at the Russian lycée. Because her father, a teacher of mathematics and physics, lost his savings through bad investment, she had to take work as a teacher and, at the same time, took part clandestinely in the nationalist "free university," reading in Polish to women workers. At the age of 18 she took a post as governess, where she suffered an unhappy love affair. From her earnings she was able to finance her sister Bronia's medical studies in Paris, on the understanding that Bronia would in turn later help her to get an education. In 1891 Maria Sklodowska went to Paris and began to follow the lectures of Paul Appel, Gabriel Lippmann, and Edmond Bouty at the Sorbonne.

There she met physicists who were already well known--Jean Perrin, Charles Maurain, and Aimé Cotton. Sklodowska worked far into the night in her students'-quarter garret and virtually lived on bread and butter and tea. She came first in the licence of physical sciences in 1893. She began to work in Lippmann's research laboratory and in 1894 was placed second in the licence of mathematical sciences. It was in the spring of this year that she met Pierre Curie. Maria Sklodowska is daughter of a Polish freethinker but reared by a Catholic mother. She abandoned the Church before she was 20 and her marriage with Pierre Curie was a purely civil ceremony because she says in her memoir of him, Pierre belonged to no religion and I did not practice any. Their marriage (July 25, 1895) marked the start of a partnership that was soon to achieve results of world significance, in particular the discovery of polonium (so called by Maria in honour of Poland) in the summer of 1898, and that of radium a few months later.

Following Henri Becquerel's discovery (1896) of a new phenomenon (which she later called "radioactivity"), Maria Curie, looking for a subject for a thesis, decided to find out if the property discovered in uranium was to be found in other matter. She discovered that this was true for thorium at the same time as G.C. Schmidt did. Turning to minerals, her attention was drawn to pitchblende, a mineral whose activity, superior to that of pure uranium, could only be explained by the presence in the ore of small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity. Pierre Curie then joined her in the work that she had undertaken to resolve this problem and that led to the discovery of the new elements, polonium and radium. While Pierre Curie devoted himself chiefly to the physical study of the new radiations, Maria Curie struggled to obtain pure radium in the metallic state--achieved with the help of the chemist A. Debierne, one of Pierre Curie's pupils. On the results of this research Maria Curie received her doctorate of science in June 1903 and, with Pierre, was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society.

Also in 1903 they shared with Becquerel the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of radioactivity. The birth of her two daughters, Irene and Eve, in 1897 and 1904 did not interrupt Maria's intensive scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the École Normale Supérieure for girls in Sévres (1900) and introduced there a method of teaching based on experimental demonstrations. In December 1904 she was appointed chief assistant in the laboratory directed by Pierre Curie. The sudden death of Pierre Curie (April 19, 1906) was a bitter blow to Maria Curie, but it was also a decisive turning point in her career: henceforth she was to devote all her energy to completing alone the scientific work that they had undertaken. On May 13, 1906, she was appointed to the professorship that had been left vacant on her husband's death; she was the first woman to teach in the Sorbonne. In 1908 she became titular professor, and in 1910 her fundamental treatise on radioactivity was published.

In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for the isolation of pure radium. In 1914 she saw the completion of the building of the laboratories of the Radium Institute (Institut du Radium) at the University of Paris. Throughout World War I, Maria Curie, with the help of her daughter Irène, devoted herself to the development of the use of X-radiography. In 1918 the Radium Institute, the staff of which Irène had joined, began to operate in earnest, and it was to become a universal centre for nuclear physics and chemistry. Maria Curie, now at the highest point of her fame, and, from 1922, a member of the Academy of Medicine, devoted her researches to the study of the chemistry of radioactive substances and the medical applications of these substances. In 1921, accompanied by her two daughters, Maria Curie made a triumphant journey to the United States , where President Warren G. Harding presented her with a gram of radium bought as the result of a collection among American women. She gave lectures, especially in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and Czechoslovakia.

She was made a member of the International Commission on Intellectual Co-operation by the Council of the League of Nations. In addition, she had the satisfaction of seeing the Curie Foundation in Paris develop and the inauguration in 1932 in Warsaw of the Radium Institute, of which her sister Bronia became director. On July 4, 1934, near Sallanches (France), Maria Sklodowska-Curie died of leukaemia, which has a number of standard consequences, one of which can be aplastic anaemia caused by her exposure to the radium that made her famous. Recognizing Maria Sklodowska-Curie with perhaps its highest posthumous honor in 1995, the French Government transferred her ashes, together with those of Pierre, to the Panth�on in Paris, making her the only woman (she is the first woman, again) to be recognized in this way for her own achievements.

One of Maria Sklodowska-Curie's outstanding achievements was to have understood the need to accumulate intense radioactive sources, not only for the treatment of illness but also to maintain an abundant supply for research in nuclear physics; the resultant stockpile was an unrivaled instrument until the appearance after 1930 of particle accelerators. The existence in Paris at the Radium Institute of a stock of 1.5 grams of radium in which, over a period of several years, radium D and polonium had accumulated, made a decisive contribution to the success of the experiments undertaken in the years around 1930 and in particular of those performed by Irene Curie in conjunction with Frederic Joliot, whom she had married in 1926. This work prepared the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick and above all the discovery in 1934 by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie of artificial radioactivity. A few months after this discovery Maria Curie died as a result of leukemia caused by the action of radiation.

Her contribution to physics had been immense, not only in her own work, the importance of which had been demonstrated by the award to her of two Nobel Prizes, but because of her influence on subsequent generations of nuclear physicists and chemists. "My mother was 37 years old when I was born. When I was big enough to know her, she was already an aging woman who had reached the summit of renown. And yet it is the 'celebrated scientist' who is strangest to me - probably because the idea that she was a 'celebrated scientist' did not occupy the mind of Marie Curie.

It seems to me rather, that I have always lived near the poor student, haunted by dreams, who was Marie Sklodowska long before I came into the world." Eve Curie, biographer of her mother Albert Einstein once said of her: "Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the one whom fame has not corrupted." Source: Madame Curie by Irene Curie, DaCapo Press 1937 More in Polish Over one hundred scientists from 13 countries, among them 12 Nobel prize winners (Baruch Blumberg [1976], Paul Crutzen [1995], Chris de Duve [1973], Leo Esaki [1973], Jerome Friedman [1990], Jerome Karle [1985], Edvard Levis [1995], Rudolf Mossbauer [1961], Burton Richter [1976], Joseph Rotblat [1995], Sherwood Rowland [1995] and Carlo Rubbia [1984]) and Maria Sklodowska-Curie' granddaughter Helene Langevin-Joliot are attending the conference on "The discovery of

 radium and polonium - scientific and philosophical consequences" which opened in Warsaw Thursday (September 17, 1998) to discuss prospects of the contemporary physics and natural sciences, global ecological threats and the responsibility of scientists for the results of their research.

The conference is the highlight of the two-years long now celebrations of the centenary of the discovery of radium and polonium by the Polish-born researcher Maria Sklodowska-Curie. President Aleksander Kwasniewski said he would like the conference to initiate a series of annual "Warsaw meetings" of scholars with politicians and representatives of economic circles, similar to the Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland.

Question: In 1903 who became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize?
Answer: Marie Curie